Cyclamen pods

Matt wrote,
>. Every single one was
>gone, thanks, most likely due to ants.
>
>Does anyone know if mice eat the seed or even the tubers?
Cyclamen seeds have a structure on them that attracts ants, which
carry the seeds away, harvest the edible portion, and drop the
fertile portion. Most old gardens in this area have Cyclamen
hederifolium spread all about, including in the lawns, for this
reason. You have to catch the seed, as Matt noted, as soon as the
capsules split open, or even just before (you can tell they're ripe
when they become very soft).
I never had mice or anything else eat cyclamen tubers in my former
garden, which had every varmint known to the American Northwest,
including the mountain beaver. However, in urban Portland they are
occasionally eaten by the introduced eastern gray squirrel. The
native Douglas squirrel did not eat them when I was up in the hills.
I have read that in Europe cyclamen tubers are a favorite food of
wild pigs, hence the English name "sowbread."
And it's time to repot your Cyclamen tubers, if you grow them in
pots, except for the summer-growing C. purpurascens.
Jane McGary
Portland, Oregon, USA